I think ditching Perez would be poop soup and even if RP was to send Lance away Mr. Stroll would certainly finance a seat in another car. The thing I can't understand is why Haas isn't in the Vettel conversation? They have struggled for several years and kept the same driver line up. I am really surprised they wouldn't want to make a driver shake up.
In reply to Nick Venero :
I've heard Perez linked to Haas- which would be a huge economic boost to that team.
Nick Venero said:I think ditching Perez would be poop soup and even if RP was to send Lance away Mr. Stroll would certainly finance a seat in another car. The thing I can't understand is why Haas isn't in the Vettel conversation? They have struggled for several years and kept the same driver line up. I am really surprised they wouldn't want to make a driver shake up.
Vettel doesn't want to pull a Kimi just yet and drive for a total back marker. RP is good enough that he can be competitive in it.
Stroll would also bring big money to Haas! But would dad really fire his son?
In reply to Dave M (Forum Supporter) :
Lance's money is all tied up at Racing Point....
Lord T'underin Jaysus, those pink Mercs are stepping up. And the Ferrari customers are going to be wanting a refund. Williams beat all four of them.
And then there are the real Mercs...
And Lance made it a tougher decision about replacing him this morning.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Fascinating that they were bold in using the mediums in Q2- the team confidence must be really up there to go for that.
Then again, the part of Merceds that everyone else needs to copy isn't their car, it's the team. How in the world did they find that kind of speed? the fact that they consistenlty find speed year over year, when other teams still go up and down is just mind boggling.
It was great to see both Williams get out of Q1, too- they are actually finding some speed.
Yes, I'll have one of these please
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
It's both the team and the car and the engine. The red bull looked really really twitchy out there, while the Mercedes was planted. It's going to be all silver arrows until 2022 I'm afraid....
In reply to Dave M (Forum Supporter) :
It's more the team than the engine at this point. Force Indai/Racing point wasn't much until they copied Mercedes. Now look at them. And Williams Mercedes, well..., probably could add 100hp and it would not make a difference.
That, and I also wonder if the engine is also a part of Wolf's leadership style.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
The engine has been the best one from day one of the turbo hybrid era, so I think Andy Cowell gets the kudos (and the big GBP) for that one, no?
One of the best, but not always the best. I agree it's the team.
One telling thing about Mercedes is seeing how they treat practice. It's more of a test session than pseudo-quali for them. Other teams are after bragging rights, but Mercedes goes out and focuses on data because there's only one thing worth bragging about on a race weekend, and it ain't winning the HPDE.
Nobody else cares about both the Williams beating all the Ferrari customer cars? That's a pretty big deal from both sides of the story.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
They're one of the most amazing operations in any sport anywhere. Everything is close to perfect, and their car this year looks dominant. It's like watching the Bulls with Jordan - you may not like them, but you respect them!
Dave M (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
The engine has been the best one from day one of the turbo hybrid era, so I think Andy Cowell gets the kudos (and the big GBP) for that one, no?
At some point, their customers teams should become far more dominant than thay have been if it was mostly engine. It wasn't until one of them copied the chassis that it finally happened.
Not to say that their engine isn't the best- Ferrari had to cheat to get to their point. Just that I think the team has been far more important.
Did anyone else just see that? Max crashed while going to the grid? Holy cow Red Bull is starting on the wrong foot today.
Wow, Max so good in the rain. 1.2 seconds off pole a week ago and didn't even make it to the grid today. I needed a good laugh this morning.
Edit - If Red Bull can get that car fixed that will be pretty impressive.
And my editorial follow up. It's funny to me that everyone is giving grief to Racing Point for copying Mercedes, when the entire feild copied Red Bull and their high rake concept. I'm not an aerodynamisist, but I kind of understand how hard it is to seal the side of the car aerodynamically- and the greater gap that you put in, the harder it is to do that.
Seeing Red Bull- I think they've carried that concept so far that they can't control it enough to be consistent.
I also postulate that the rest of the field struggles with that, which is one reason even the best teams can not find speed that they used to have. This is even openly wondering if McLaren and Williams took the concept so far that they went over the edge, and then lost everything over their years of struggle.
It's also interesting to see so many years of Mercedes domination, and it was not until the last model season of this rule set that anyone bothered to go their direction. Shock of shocks, that car is fast. And now because they copied Mercedes so close, everyone is bashing them.... IMHO, it's more like- what took so long?
Merceds isn't perfect, but it seems that it's a LOT easier to set up and to be more robust.
That reduced Ferrari power really helped them launch in the wet
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
There's a gigantic difference between imitating innovative general concepts that work, like high rake angle or blown diffusers or ground effects, and a carbon copy of the entire car soup to nuts. They've basically scanned the 2019 Merc. So no, I think it's different.
Meanwhile in conspiracy theories, the Mercedes engines were really smoky in qualifying. Given the bump in power this year, is it possible that they figured out a way to do the Ferrari cheat from last year in some way??
Dave M (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Meanwhile in conspiracy theories, the Mercedes engines were really smoky in qualifying. Given the bump in power this year, is it possible that they figured out a way to do the Ferrari cheat from last year in some way??
Why bother risking the negative publicity. I guess Honda is their closest "competition" at the moment, and the Ferrari Saubers just qualified dead last.
My conspiracy question is why aren't they sand bagging harder to keep the show going.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Did anyone else just see that? Max crashed while going to the grid? Holy cow Red Bull is starting on the wrong foot today.
...and the fans still voted him the driver of the day. Umm, not so sure about that. Mechanic team of the day, maybe. Amazing that they managed to put that car together on the grid with seconds to spare and it was properly set up.
Did anyone else hear Lewis say "holy E36 M3!" when he saw the quali results for the first time?
Keith Tanner saidDid anyone else hear Lewis say "holy E36 M3!" when he saw the quali results for the first time?
I thought I heard that, but didn't put together the reason.
Dave M (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
There's a gigantic difference between imitating innovative general concepts that work, like high rake angle or blown diffusers or ground effects, and a carbon copy of the entire car soup to nuts. They've basically scanned the 2019 Merc. So no, I think it's different.
Meanwhile in conspiracy theories, the Mercedes engines were really smoky in qualifying. Given the bump in power this year, is it possible that they figured out a way to do the Ferrari cheat from last year in some way??
Copying is copying as far as I can see. And I have no problem with it, anyway. i'm a lazy engineer and would rather start with a good solution than try to invent one on my own. One learns a lot faster when you let and belive other people make mistakes and innovations.
Keith Tanner said:alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:Did anyone else just see that? Max crashed while going to the grid? Holy cow Red Bull is starting on the wrong foot today.
...and the fans still voted him the driver of the day. Umm, not so sure about that. Mechanic team of the day, maybe. Amazing that they managed to put that car together on the grid with seconds to spare and it was properly set up.
Did anyone else hear Lewis say "holy E36 M3!" when he saw the quali results for the first time?
Dutch fans are kind of delusional.
You'll need to log in to post.
